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Glenbard South makes stop against Streamwood

You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody at Glenbard South on Friday night that had seen anyone do what Streamwood did.

The Sabres took the opening kickoff and held the ball for the first 14 minutes, going 85 yards on 23 plays - all on the ground, a drive that ended with a Sirrion Dixon touchdown run.

"It was something I've never experienced," Raiders coach Ryan Crissey said. "They scored with what, 9:50 (left in) the second quarter? ... We knew exactly what they were going to do, they just won the line of scrimmage for a majority of the game."

It wasn't long enough.

Glenbard South bounced back for a 13-6 Upstate Eight Conference victory in Glen Ellyn on the strength of two Cade Hardtke touchdown catches from quarterback Nick Plaso, the first just one second before halftime.

"That was huge," said Raiders junior linebacker Jeremy Gelino of the late second-quarter TD. "That just helped our defense so much and helped the whole team. The defense couldn't have done any of that the rest of the game had the offense not do that. We were so thankful for that."

The Raiders' second touchdown proved to be the game-winner, a 46-yard pass down the right sideline that Hardtke caught even as it somehow eluded a Sabres defender running right in front of him.

"Cade was begging for that play for a quarter and a half," Crissey said. "And we were just waiting. We were just waiting to see the corners keep coming up, keep coming up. And once Nick started rolling out we knew it was there. It was beautiful."

Streamwood (0-1, 0-1) ended the game with a 22-play drive - again all running plays - that took the Sabres from their own 15-yard line to Glenbard South's 13, with quarterback Andrew Phan converting a fourth-and-7 along the way. But on fourth-and-5 at the 13 Gelino tackled Phan to end the drive and allow the Raiders to run out the clock.

"Me and my teammates decided we saw him pull the play before," Gelino said. "They called a timeout. We knew he was pulling again because that's all he did the whole game and we read it perfectly. All of us got there, and I was just the lucky man to get (the tackle)."

"We were pretty confident we were going to be able to do that again," Streamwood coach Don Guindon said. "We were probably going to go for 2 to try to win the game there in the last 30 seconds. The kids, they battled. We got the one fourth down, we didn't get the second one, and sometimes when you're playing good teams, and they're a playoff team from a year ago, when you're playing good teams, sometimes it comes down to that. I'm so proud of our kids."

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